Badlands Billy 
in the middle completed the setting. No hu- 
man eye, few animal noses, could have detected 
the hidden danger of that sandy ground, when 
the sun and wind and the sand itself had dissi- 
pated the man-track taint. 
The Yellow Wolf had seen and passed, and 
taught her giant son to pass, such traps a thou- 
sand times before. 
The Cattle came to water in the heat of the 
day. ‘They strung down the Buffalo path as 
once the Buffalo did. The little Vesper-birds 
flitted before them, the Cowbirds rode on them, 
and the Prairie-dogs chattered at them, just as 
they once did at the Buffalo. 
Down from the gray-green mesa with its 
green-gray rocks, they marched with imposing 
solemnity, importance, and directness of pur- 
pose. Some frolicsome Calves, playing along- 
side the trail, grew sober and walked behind 
their mothers as the river flat was reached. 
The old Cow that headed the procession sniffed 
suspiciously as she passed the “trap set,” but 
it was far away, otherwise she would have 
pawed and bellowed over the scraps of bloody 
beef till every trap was sprung and harmless. 
135 
